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It's a bit annoying. I hope for home ties to the 3rd round, then a big-name away tie. Get hammered, but get loaded!

The same is happening to my local BSS club* in the real-life FA Cup 2nd round next weekend, they've got a league two side coming down from quite a way away. Once the away team expenses have been paid, and the gate split, it won't be such a financially successful day as you might think.

*Actually not my local club anymore, but where I grew up and where the heart is (Up the City, wheel 'em in!). The L2 side played my current local team on TV in the last round!

This season was pretty similar to last. We started well, had some horiffic slumps of form, rallied a bit and ended up last game of the season beating Man U 2-1, which has led to use finishing 7th in the league. It means we are qualified for the 3rd Qual round of the Europa Cup. So I am really excited to get my first taste of European football in this years FM!

A lot of the players I signed last season, turned out to have reasonable min fee clauses which got met this season, and thus I was selling players that I didnt want to go, and then panicking to find replacements. When I can get all the good players I can find in a squad at the same time in a season, I reckon we will be better than the mid table side we are turning into. The good bit is of course we are at least establishing ourselves as a premiership side.

Aims
Get better
Perhaps finish 6th, and move up a place each year!?
Not embarass ourselves in Europe

First season i thought would be all about strengthening and rebuilding ready to push for promotion next season, but we went against everyone's predicition including my own by being in the run for automactic promotion till the final day. Sadly results went against us so had to settle for second, but we went on to beat Colwyn Bay 1-0 in the playoff final

Improving the squad went well and i managed to stay within the wage budget as well for the season. With all the comings and goings the squad finally looked like this.
Our player of the season was Jack Adams who we signed for free after he had sat on the free agent list for over a year since he was released by Sheff Utd.

Even though we stayed inside the wage budget, finances still dropped like a lead balloon over the season with us finally finishing with a balance of -£189,739 a loss of -£302,385 on the season, nearly half of this loss was on ground maintenance.

Plans for next season:
1) Avoid relegation
2) Improve squad where needed
3) Improve finances
4) Have a cup run

After consecutive promotions, you might think I was expecting a rough ride. But my board backed me with massively improved transfer budgets and I went into pre-season feeling very positive. All the more so when Southampton sold Kalema Lukaku to Swansea for just shy of £1m. I had a 50% sell-on, and suddenly my bank balance hit seven figures for the first time. After a dodgy start, we found ourselves sitting top of the league a third of the way through the season. After a brief slump, we recovered and though it was too little, too late for automatic promotion, we did secure a playoff place.

The first leg was Frustration Central - having been 3-1 up, we lost 4-3. Then between the legs, the takeover which has been on-off for about 3 years finally took place. No investment but the club is in a decent financial state so that's not a problem. I just hope the new owners are as generous as the previous ones. In the second leg, having gone 1-0 down, we were 3-1 up at half time, and adding a fourth just afterwards more or less booked our place at Wembley. I ran away with it really, and despite a disallowed goal, we eventually won 5-1, and 8-5 on aggregate. What a tie!

We have a good history at Wembley, and had never lost in three previous visits. And it seemed that we'd continue that run when we were 1-0 up in the 89th minute against Southampton. But fate is cruel. It wasn't to be, this year. But the finances took another big boost from the Wembley trip and solidarity payments, so next year should be good for us.

Cup Runs this year saw us get to Round Four of the FA Cup for the first time ever, and with a couple of televised matches, it was particularly lucrative. But we fell at the first hurdle in the Carling Cup, and only the second in the JPT. Sorry for the absence of screenshots - fixture bug means that I cant isolate the cups apart from the FA Cup, which saw us beat Aldershot, Sutton Utd and Telford after a replay (which was televised) before being crushed 3-0 by Watford in the first 4th round tie at Harrow Stadium ever. That was also televised - which gave us a big chunk of cash, although the splitting of our highest ever gate receipts was irritating.

Key PlayersMike Faulds*- a revelation - the Josh Williams of my League One days.Dominic Winter- a great signing whose goals almost pushed us into the automatic promotion running.Josh Rose and Craig Davidson- two strikers with similar goals returns, and Rose's assists tally in particular is great.Gokhan Karatoprak- kept up his League Two form in the higher division, and his goal in the playoff final nearly clinched promotion.Giasoumis Avgousti- 21 assists says it all. Still a key player.Calvin Cooke- consistent and 12 goals from midfield is a good return for the season.

WILFRED ADAMS
A major part of the back-to-back promotions, but wasn't quite up to the grade in League One so I let him go.
APPS: 175, GOALS: 18, ASSTS: 12, MoM: 12, AvR: 7.19

Next season, I need to strengthen further. I want this team to be capable of staying in the Championship next season, so that when we do make it up, we can push further on up the table and not have a massive relegation fight on our hands. The odds for promotion of 40-1 seem odd, but hopefully we can push on and get promotion at the second attempt.

Targets for 2023/24
Survival. SUCCESS
Cup run including a victory over a Premiership side. FAILURE - but we did make it to the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time.
Sign at least one player with Premiership potential. FAILURE - although both Faulds and Kiss have leading Championship potential.

Targets for 2024/25
Promotion.
Cup run including a victory over a Premiership side.
Sign at least three players with Premiership potential, and ideally with leading Championship Current Ability.

In other news, Arsenal won the league, Premiership Sheffield Wednesday won the cup, and Man Utd won the Champions' League for the first time since 2012 despite appearing in three finals in between times.

PS - the table on the first page is, as you have all noticed, not in operation currently. We're looking into easier ways of doing it, because with so many entrants, it was just becoming a crazy amount of work and was unsustainable. Will let you know when I know more.

Summary: I was pretty hopeful before the season, as we'd kept together most of the squad from last year, and I thought we'd even strengthened in a couple of areas. Unfortunately we were rubbish to start with, picked up a series of niggling injuries to key players and never seemed to have fully fit players when we needed them (even though we employed a fitness coach). We then got even worse before things picked up to merely mediocre in the middle of the season, and once the January transfer window came and I picked up another centre-back and a better centre-midfielder things improved and we finished just 3 points from the play-offs after a strong run-in where we beat most of the promotion contenders. ProgressCurrent squad

Transfers: Transfers included Stephen Ireland on a free transfer. He contributed little, and although he wasn't on big wages he was gone before the end of the season. The rest was the usual in and out of youth with only Rhys Oates and Lee Griffiths getting much regular first-team action.

Future prospects: Top-scorer Dominic Samuel and midfielder Mason Bush are both out-of-contract and far too expensive in their demands, but I'm hoping they stay around as I can't get in anyone else of their calibre. A few youngsters may break through this year, but as always it's hard to tell. I need a promotion or an FA cup run (FAT semi this year earned us barely anything) to stabilise finances. Still in the black, but only just

Qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions league, despite totally cocking up the squad registration and missing out a few decent players. Be warned that FM12 CL registration is different to FM11!

First season in the football league, and have to say that it went well, whilst never really looking at promotion(untill the end of season) we were never in any danger of relegation, we handeled the step up really well and the team just got stronger as the season passed, the main issue was lack of good cover for key players (well most of my first 11 really) meant that with any of them missing we werent at our best. Pretty pleased with the season - looking for promotion next year

Reason for this very short update is that I finished this season very late thursday night and due to working and then out drinking since then I have forgot a load of the details of the season

Season update #1

The phoenix club of Chester almost continued its rise with successive promotions, but fell heavily at the last hurdle. After a season where we were on the fringes of the play-off places, we had given up hope of actually participating in them until we managed to sneak into them with 3 games to go and finished an unexpected third in our first season in the BSN. Injuries to key players such as veteran Ian Bennet riddled our play-off ties, which cumulated in an embarrassing 5-0 defeat to rivals Northwich. I'm sure that's all I'm going to hear about from the board for the next season! If not for the way in which it ended, I would be greatly pleased with the way our season has unfolded.

As for the cups, they were more regarded as a nuisance than a chance for glory. Crashed out in the second qualifying round of the FA Cup against the recently relegated Solihull Moors. The FA Trophy saw at least some progression, including a satisfying win over Northwich (which their manager obviously used at motivation for the play-off final!) before putting up a brave but useless fight against Macclesfield in the second round proper. Next season may see us advance further in the cups, but they won't be on our target list.

For some reason the previous management decided to put in a reserve squad for this season, which of cause failed spectacularly and was used to house the transfer listed players whom the club could not re-home. A more than deserved bottom of the table finish was achieved with them by my assistant manager. Now, one squad I am keen to see do well under my staff's management is that of my beloved U18s. It is largely futile to expect anything of them in the coming seasons, I do realise, but I can't help but feel proud that although I had only two youngsters in the U18 squad they still managed to progress to the third round of their cup and not finish bottom! The U18 squad will of course be funded and registered for next season, whereas the reserve squad is highly unlikely to face the same fate.

Transfers

I wasted no time getting straight into the market and pretty much setting up my own stall there. The captures of the season where without doubt that of Ian Bennet and Marcus Hall who were more than worth their wage demands, bringing both skill and a vast amount of experience to a young team under constant change throughout the season. The only club icon, Michael Wilde, left for pastures new as he was replaced by younger talent who will hopefully become club icons themselves. The transfer budget was spent on a record breaking purchase, 12k (over 24 months) for a young TNS defender who came into a side much in need of a centreback. Some of this was offset by others leaving, the in form Rainford being amongst those after refusing to sign the contract extension given to him.

Target(s)

Only one for next season: promotion!

Note: I'm not really very good at writing these things up, anything you want to know just ask ^^

To be honest I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't win the league. We did good all season and as you see we only conceded 36 and scored 78 goals. We had a bad run at the end. If I had won the last game (Ebsfleet) I would have won the league. They even got a red card.

Another incredible season, in our first league season we managed to secure 85 points, two less than last season, but more than enough to secure the title and our promotion to League 1. Whilst I'm unsure that we'll be able to achieve such unlikely success again in our first season in League 1, anything is possible.

-

FA Cup: 2-1 to Hull in the Second Round, not bad, but not great.League Cup: The "Mickey Mouse" cup saw us progress to the Second Round where we were beaten 3-0 to Norwich.Johnstone's Paint Trophy: Barnet humbled us 2-0 at the Dripping Pan in the Quarter Final South.

Managers Player of the Season

Ljubomir Jovicic: An average rating of 7.27 with a whopping 9 MotM awards showed just how impressive this Serbian can be when he plays to his best.

I’ve been a little busy lately, so I only just managed to finish my 3rd season with Chippenham Town. Our final position in the league was predictable early on (well, we ended a couple of positions higher than I had anticipated thanks to some late-season signings who turned out to give the team a serious boost), and while we finished 10 points short of the playoff positions, there was one rather huge, positive surprise – the FA Cup.
To be fair, I’ve often wondered how some of you guys go far enough in the FA Cup to play Premier League sides within the first couple of seasons, but finally it happened for me! We initially entered the 4th qualifying round of the competition, where we faced local rivals Bath, and only just managed to progress after a rematch and penalties. From then on, however, I was surprised by the performances of my own team, as we first beat MK Dons, and just three days later, sent Shrewsbury in the same direction. This resulted in a match against Sunderland – unfortunately, however, it was to be played at home. I did a few calculations, and if the match had been played at The Stadium of Light, we’d have earned £708k (assuming that the stadium would’ve been filled to the brink). Instead, the match was played in front of a crowd of 4000 at Hardenhuish Park, netting us £30k in entry fees. After the game, however, I was delighted to read that it’d been broadcast on TV, for which we were paid £144k. This put us in plus for the season.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that, obviously, Sunderland smashed us to bits. 1-6 was the final result, and although we actually followed them quite well in most parts of the game, their efficiency was astonishing. Off the top of my head, I think the possession statistics were around 50/50, 7-11 shot attempts (in their favour). Might be mistaken though.

Gilbster - Good luck in Europe! Grp stages are fun, just pray you don't get any English teams in the first or second KO round GreyedOutMan - Nice you see you finally are "rising" in leagues - though I really did admire your previous persistance in BSS!Swirlypop - Show's some screenies of players High Flying Dwarf - Congrats on promotion! paste some more stadium piccys, thats a blast when you do!

A very pleasing season. Finishing in second places and are currently ranked as the 19th best team in Europe. Our 3-1-2-2-2 is really starting to become a good formation. With the central defenders maturing and finally having an above average keeper, we managed to concede less goals and did score quite many this season.

Tottenham was almost untouchable all season, only in the last game of the season, Man Utd climbed and took their second championship in a row. Had job offers from USA, Chelsea and Man City over the season.

FA Cup was terrible and we had an exit in 4th round to Tottenham, who won 2-1 away.

ECC was more than a good experience. Entered grp play with R. Madrid, Schalke and Lech. Progressed as second in the grp and played against Bayern in the 1st KO - With a 3-1 home win and a 1-1 away Barcelona waited in the Q/F. 0-0 Home and i was sure we were done for, but an undeserving 1-0 win away saw us to the S/F vs Juventus. 1-2 home loss (including 2 of our goals ruled out and a Juve goal in the 93d min) Away vs a 10 man Juve, we only managed a 2-2.

LC - As we won this competition, i decided to try something new. Will post the press info after each game:

GK:
- Phillip Salibur: Did a really good job for a 19 year old, but gk is still our weakest spot.

DEF:
- Carl "the one and only" Flynn: Didn't play as many games this season due to fatigue, but the ones he did play he played really well, including quite a few goals.
- Mauro Mio: Had a good first season, but is still adopting to playing DC instead of DR.
- Lars Andersen: Is just getting better and better and a really good choice for when Carl hangs his boots up.
- Cristiano: Our best defender had another great season.

MID:
- Marcos Costa: Should probable have played more games, the ones he played he did really well, as well as 9 goals and 20 assists in 34 games.
- Busão: Played many of "Costas" games, but need a new really good player there, when Costa retires.
- Chris Hayter: Our most capped English players (6 games ) had an amazing season playing DM
- Pirulito: Had his first really good season, very encouraging.

ATT:
- Wayne Hall: Had a good season, despite this was his "worst" season of the 3 seasons with us, he still scored 38 goals in 58 games, and has finally been added to the English first team, where he is used as AM.

An excellent season in my first in the BSP, but ultimately disappointing. I have managed to improve my squad, to the point where I have a mixture of League 1, 2 and Championship potential players. Disappointing that I was knocked out of the playoffs by a team that I hadn't lost to in the previous two fixtures. I had only lost once in the previous nineteen matches as well. Disappointing run in the FA cup, managed to reach the 1st round for only the 2nd time, yet lost to a non league team 3-0. I also reached Wembley for the first time, having reached the FA Trophy final, yet conceded a goal in the 92nd minute from a corner.

Finances – Poor, currently £158k in the red, still need a big tie against a Premier league team, hopefully next season.

Squad – Continues to look stronger each season. Still need a 30 goal a season striker, but it helps having depth that can all contribute. Karius managed to achieve 15 league (17 overall) clean sheets this season. Defence is much stronger, Barker was awarded the young player of the month twice and the player of the month once, he is also supported strongly at the back. Midfield is also looking good, my wingers contributed 23 goals between them.

Key Player Profiles

Matthew Paterson – Finished the season with 20 goals, 18 in the league my teams highest and the 10th highest in the league. He also scored 7 goals in 2 games. Knows how to set his team mates up as well with 10 assists, equal highest in the squad.http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/61...DD71549FB3A89/

Andy Barker – Rock at the back, doesn't have the best stats and is ill disciplined but you can't fault his performances. Having won 3 player of the month awards, he has the 5th highest average rating in the league for a defender and the highest in the squad for a long term player. He is still young and continues to improve.http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/61...B896C94977358/

Went into the season feeling quietly confident that I'd have no problems competing and staying in the division. The first twelve games went really well and I found myself topping the table. Unfortunately, a bad run followed and I fell away, but pulled it back late in the season to achieve a play-off spot. A first-leg 4-1 home victory over Cardiff was a great scoreline but felt as though the job wasn't done...unfortunately I was spot on. A second leg defeat of 9-3 (YES THAT'S RIGHT, NINE) had me nearly smashing up my laptop! Anyways, I can't complain too much as I can hopefully go all the way next season.

League was about the same, but a worse finish. Inconsistent. Just cant beat the big sides, and barely bead the awful sides. League cup should just be removed its a worthless, worthless competition when knocked out in 3rd round. FA Cup we fared a lot better and made it to the Quarter Finals, before losing to Man City.

However it was of course our first seaosn in Europe, and that was a far more interesting part of the season. We entered in the 3rd Qual round, where we beat Banska Bystrica 6-1 on agg setting up a tie against Jablonec which we also beat 6-1 on aggregate to set up our group stage.

We then managed to beat Zenit and Gaziantspsor in the knockout rounds, setting up a tie against Celtic in the quarters.

First Leg Celtic 2-1 North Ferriby, 2nd Leg - NF 1-0 Celtic so we go to the semi finals of the Europa Cup on our first attempt.
Unfortunately it was Chelsea and the beat us 5-2 on aggregate. However in our defence by that stage of the season we had about 1 fit first choice strikers and injuries all over the place, so in a way im glad it was only 5-2.

I have no clue what to do with my squad for next season, my gut feeling is dont panic buy anyone, and streamline it before I do anything else.

Aim

Europe qualification through any means
Improve
Stop losing to big 4
Perhaps a domestic cup final

Bad news: As i finished writing up my review mlaptop crashed and I lost it (the review - FM was shut down!) so I shall post a new update after work tomorrow as to lazy to re-type tonight (though if anyone wants to foloow my twitter account - dazza1889 btw - then check out my timeline as its about the only thing that I've tweeted about today

We were expected to go straight back to the lower division and considering that only luck let us beat AFC Telford last season I was expecting tough campaign to stay in the BSP. I started playing with a 442 from BSN but we were leaking too many goals so I modified a formation a bit to have more support in the back so it's a 451 now. We were lacking in a strikers department anyway so no big deal. Unexpectedly we were playing very well and in some point of the season I started thinking about promotion and winning the league. Unfortunately at this time came the big shocker and our main assist provider Lucas Bertola got injured for a few weeks and we started losing badly. I was going down in the league and only in the last games of the season managed to (barely) hold the playoff spot. Didn't expect anything there as we lost with all teams that were above us, but first we managed to win twice (2-0) against Stockport and then in the final we were able to hold our ground against Luton. I am thinking that it was too fast to go up the leagues and we will be struggling badly in L1. With wage budget almost not changed between the leagues we are standing at the last place in terms of wage budget and not able to sign players of good quality. I'll try to offload some of the better players as they will not sign new contracts anyway and at least maybe I'll get a bigger wage budget to strengthen our squad for a successful promotion campaign in a few years. I have a big problem with fitness and basically with the fixture congestion I'm having to have two starting 11s, one that I use for important cups and league matches and the other for less important matches in the meantime. How can you cope with players playing sat-wed-sat in this league and not getting insanely tired, I've tried reducing the training workload as much as I dared and still after the wed match the condition of most players is around 85% which I do not deem sufficient to get into the starting 11.

Star player: Bart Aalbers, but if it wasn't for the injury it would have gone to Lucas Bertola.

targets from last season:
League: Stay up (Media prediction 24th) - Achieved with style, managing to get promoted
FA Cup: Win something - Achieved, our succesful campaign came to abrupt end in a match vs Leeds
FA Trophy: 4th round - Achieved, but I feel slightly disappointed as I feel we could have maybe won the competition

Targets for next season:
League: Stay up (Media prediction 24th, my prediction 20th)
FA Cup: Get a cup run and make some money
League Cup: Get a nice away match against some strong Premiership side to boost the budget
JPT: I don't really care

This turned out to be a great season as the team was near the top for most of the year although always lagging behind Coventry, promotion was sealed with 3 games to go. In the FA cup i made the 3rd Rd where i lost 3-0 away to championship Hartlepool, a result i was disappointed with. In the league cup i started with a great win against championship Leicester before squeezing past championship QPR 1-0 at home. In the 3rd Rd i lost 2-0 away to Liverpool, although i did make 400K which kept my finances in the black which are otherwise in a poor state. The board won't consider upgrades to the training facilities which are still at basic. In the JPT i reached the northern final swapping 1-0 away wins with Wrexham before losing on penalties.

Transfers were again mostly about trialling players before rejecting them due to either being not good enough or unable to meet their wage demands, Klinger was the only first teamer to come in the rest are youth or young reserve players. I continued to get rid of the players who wouldn't take the club foward. These included Dombaxe (51 apps 4 goals), Norman (77 apps 23 goals) Hajrovic (98 apps 7 goals) and Eminoglu (117 apps 2 goals).
My defence generally were excellent although Hammar and Yilmaz in particular were great and also scored a few as well. The midfield were inconsistant although Bule played well and Brandt managed a record number of assists mostly with corners to the centre backs. The strikers didn't really play well with Klinger very disappointing by only scoring in one game.

An unbelievably successful season, driven forward by the scoring form of one man. Ben Williamson's 34 league goals propelled us to 4th place. Of my new transfers, Danny O'Donnell (7.14 average rating and 9 goals) and Aaron Lescott (7.18 average rating) provided some much needed solidity to my previously leaky defence. I will need to add to the squad going in to League 2, but I am delighted with what we achieved this season.

Ben Williamson won the top scorer award for the BSP, and I was also able to win manager of the year.

Last seasons aims
Survive my first year in the Blue Square Premier - Passed and then some. Promotion was beyond my wildest dreams
Build the base of a side, in preparation for a play off push next season - n/a With my promotion, I'll be looking to build again next season.
Stay financially viable during the boards planned stadium expansion - Passed We made a 15K profit for the season, which I would consider a success with the expansion costs.

Next seasons aims - The same as last year, just a league up
Survive my first year in League Two
Build the base of a side, in preparation for a play off push next season
Stay financially viable during the boards planned stadium expansion

What a cracking season we had! After an 9th place finish (missing out on playoffs by a single point) in our first season as a league club, I felt we were close to being a promotion winning team, but needed that extra qulity. So off to the shops I went picking up Sammy AmeobiJason Banton and Jaye Bowen and huge Centre Back Fabian Hoffmann all on free's and bringing Ian Dumphy on a season long loan from Premership Cardiff. I had a change of formation from 442 to 4231 and
we started with a 3 straight wins and never really looking back, our lowest league posistion all season was 4th, the only real stumble we had was that whenever we went top we would drop points almost instantly untill the last part of the season where a 26 game unbeaten run saw us win the tittle at the end of April.

CUPS

JPTGot to the srea semi final before losing to league one team, I want to win this before we go onto the Championship

League Cup Only a couple of rounds of this - nothing to write home about

For those that have progressed a bit, was wondering what the job offer situation has been like?

I had previously been offered the Wrexham job when they were struggling in the BSP beside me, but having just won the BSP, it's gone a bit crazy!

First Crystal Palace, having just been relegated from the Championship came after me. Not too strange I suppose.

But just days later, Leicester, just relegated from the Premiership, came in with this offer! Who would give a recently non league manager a job with £24.5m to spend! Think I might save this one to the side, and keep it for a potential career game later. (also recently relegated Norwich also look like offering me the job too!)

Also just had the news that we are getting a new stadium by the end of next season - the imaginatively titled Canvey Island Stadium. Think it took weeks to come up with the name...

ECC was same result as last season, made it all the way to the Semi Finals. Had an easy road until we met Barcelona who was itching for revenge, and they got it. 2-2 home and 3-0 away.

Our star Wayne Hall, didn't score that many goals, which was teams overall problem this season. We didnt concede many goals either, but had many silly draws we should have won.

Players of the season:

GK:
- Phillip Salibur: Had a great season, even though av rating really is screwed on keepers. Got his first french cap this season!

DEF:
- Carl Flynn: Had his first disappointing season. Granted at age 33 i reckon he did ok with the chances he got, just not many goals from him.
- Cristiano: Had a great season
- Lars Andersen: Had a great season.
- Mauro Mio: Enjoyed this season and proves worthy to take Flynn's place.

MID:
- Marcos Costa: Had a poor season plagued with injuries. Still important player to me!
- Chris Hayter: Had a really good season, but also had 1 long injury.
- Pirulito: Played when he could, but was also injury struck.
- Schwaab: Had a great season playing when Pirulito was out.
- Busão: Had a great season due to absense of Costa.
- Yassine Masson: New signing from Havre, bought for 10mil. Encouraging first season, and got his first cap as well.
ATT:
- Wayne Hall: Had a good season, but didn't score alot.
- Giuseppe Cutolo: Had his first really good season.

Some player demands when it comes to contracts are strange. At Chester I can't offer people part-time contracts unless they are youngsters or first team/key players as it won't let me put in a contract length if I choose rotation/backup, which is annoying in itself. What is stranger though is people not wanting to resign for me on improved terms and instead demanding non contracts with big appearance fees.

For example my defender Pike was into his last year of his part-time first team contract at £300p/w, so naturally I enter into talks to extend it. His initial demands are for a non-contract with big appearance fee, which surprises me really. What they hey, I change it to the current terms but with an increased wage and he outright rejects it and walks out of contract negotiations. I really don't understand why?!

Overall a good season with us finishing in 4th place but lost 1-0 against Fleetwood in Playoff Final.

We achieved this with a fair bit of wheeling and dealing in the transfer market which saw a total of 17 new signings over the season but 17 players that weren't upto the grade were released but the board also sold by best DM for £725,000 as they said it was too good to turn down which meant i had to promote my young reserve DM who overall had a good season. so in the end it wasn't a bad thing.

the squad gelled well with all the comings and goings, and surprised eveyone except me with being in the running for automatic promotion until the backlog of games that had been postponed due to bad weather had to be played, it meant we were playing every saturday and tuesday/wednesday for 7 weeks towards the end of the season and the team mainly drew just couldn't buy a winning goal in most of these games.

finances are in good order with us making over £650,000. really it should only have been £325,000 but for some reason at the start of December board invested £325,000 even though at the time we were over £500,000 in profit due to the sale of our best DM. even with that board investment they still wont improve stadium, facilities or training ground, unless they decide to at start of next season, here's hoping as could do with stadium capacity being increased ready for when we get into League 2 at the end of next season.

Plans for next season:-

1) Improve sqaud where needed
2) Have a cup run to get more money in bank to make club more secure for when we reach football league
3) Gain promotion
4) Get board to increase stadium capacity or training ground and facilities. (nice if could get both done)

The sale of Calvin Cooke further boosted my bank balance, along with a bonus £100k for a reserve player who was never going to make it for us. But we were struggling to find players to improve the side. The pitch was also relaid which, I hoped, would boost my home form. We started badly but then climbed rapidly on a long unbeaten run from early November to an unlucky defeat at Fratton Park in mid-January. But from then on it was much more stop-start, and a bad run from late March in which we got only 1 point in six games before inexplicably overcoming leaders Sunderland at Harrow Stadium. But it was a false dawn - the trip to Wembley detailed below followed straight afterwards and seemed to take something out of us for a while. Form improved a bit at the end of the season but it was too late and it was a massive step backwards in the League this year. Or so I thought. But suddenly, after five points from 9 games, we put together a run of four wins and a draw in five games and went into the last game level on points with Barnet in 6th. With the goal difference six behind Barnet, realistically we needed to better their result to squeeze into the playoffs at the last minute. After four consecutive defeats, Barnet faced mid-table Tranmere in their last game, whilst we had to visit our JPT Final opponents, Bolton, who I knew would be our likely opponents in the playoff final if we got there. With Stoke and Bristol City vying for automatic promotion, one of those would be our semi-final opponents if we could snatch the playoff place.

We took the lead at the Reebok within twenty minutes, and doubled our lead before half-time. Soon after the hour, we secured a massive win with a third goal, and though Bolton did get one back, it never looked likely that they'd get back into the game. Would it be enough? Despite Tranmere's late goal giving Barnet a scare at Underhill, they held on for a 2-1 win meaning that we missed out on our second playoff appearance in League One. Still, it had been a good recovery after a tough run.

The record signing of Francisco Luis Melendez might have been a mistake - he's only 22 now so there's time for him to come good, but he was definitely a disappointment this year. It feels a bit like a lottery with my scouts at the moment - for every Kaya or Faulds, there's a Melendez or a Ouinsou. If I'm going to get out of this league, I'm going to need to find a few more quality players alongside the gems we've already got. The expected loss of stalwarts Williams, Avgousti, Rose and Tommy as well as possibly the impressive Ivan Kiss means we will need significant reinforcements this summer and I will need to replace them with better quality than some of my current squad. However, getting the high wages of players such as Avgousti and Williams will free up some budget finally and mean that I can halt the decline in our financial fortunes. I think, despite an awesome couple of years, Faulds might also be on the way out because I could use the money and I actually think he seems over-rated in the game. But we do need to replace these players with adequate reinforcements to add to the quality we have particularly up front.

Cup Runs this year: a first Carling Cup win against League Two's Bristol Rovers was followed up by a visit from Premiership Newcastle United at Harrow Stadium. We put up a valiant fight, eventually going down 2-1 after extra time in a game in which we gave as good as we got. The FA Cup saw a disappointing 1st round exit to Portsmouth but the Johnstone's Paint Trophy saw yet another Wembley visit. The defeat to Southampton in the Playoff Final last season was the first Wembley defeat for Harrow in our fourth match there. This time, fate wasn't on our side. And the gate receipt income from the final wasn't that great either. Finances do need sorting out, we'll need to carefully balance quality signings with economy next year.

Key PlayersMike Faulds- continued his great form, but his contract is up in a year which might force me to cash in.Dominic Winter*- easily the outstanding striker with 20 goals despite injuries.Giasoumis Avgousti- goes without saying. 20 assists is awesome, but he won't sign a contract and will be gone next year.Daniel Nwankwo- performances don't really match his goals. If he can start scoring a bit more regularly next year, we'll go up.Lewis Casey- consistent full-backs are awesome!Ivan Kiss- forming a solid defensive partnership with Faulds, might be able to step up to the role of senior defender if necessary.
(*= fans' player of the year)

GIASOUMIS AVGOUSTI
Couldn't persuade him to sign on again, but he had a good run for us. One of the favoured personnel of the club. Being released by Manchester City was obviously a good thing for him!! What a great player he has been.
APPS: 454, GOALS: 48, ASSTS: 152, MoM: 27, AvR: 7.05

JOSH WILLIAMS
Fell out of favour but was our best player for several years.
APPS: 385, GOALS: 48, ASSTS: 17, MoM: 29, AvR: 7.05

JOSH ROSE
After two impressive years, he was very much back-up last year. Strangely, all three of the legends to leave so far scored 48 goals for the club! Spooky!
APPS: 117, GOALS: 48, ASSTS: 40, MoM: 10, AvR: 7.26

Next season, we simply must improve. I need to get out of this league before I start to stagnate. It's getting far harder to sign players though - I have a horrible feeling I'll have to build up a team from some youngsters but at this level that's even harder than at the Premiership level, as Arsene shows.... But we'll see.

Targets for 2024/25
Promotion. FAILURE
Cup run including a victory over a Premiership side. FAILURE
Sign at least three players with Premiership potential, and ideally with leading Championship Current Ability. FAILURE but several players of decent/good Championship quality.

Targets for 2025/26
Promotion
Promotion
Promotion

In other news, Arsenal put and end to their run of winning in every other year for the last 5 years and retained their title, whilst Liverpool won the Cup and Man Utd beat Barcelona on penalties in Rome to claim the Champions' League.

PS - the table on the first page is, as you have all noticed, not in operation currently. We're looking into easier ways of doing it, because with so many entrants, it was just becoming a crazy amount of work and was unsustainable. Will let you know when I know more.

Reverted back to the old FC United save for a little while. I missed the guys. Sold most of my Germans to get assorted guys in again. Brought back a few legends too, including Lustenberger, Victor, Frank, Bobada and Bertrand (He's improved massively since I had him in L2!)

Building up to the end of the season, top of the Premiership on excellent form, coasting through to the Champions league semi-final... and my two best players go and get injured! Hopefully the squad can pull together and help me complete the challenge.

For those that have progressed a bit, was wondering what the job offer situation has been like?

I had previously been offered the Wrexham job when they were struggling in the BSP beside me, but having just won the BSP, it's gone a bit crazy!

First Crystal Palace, having just been relegated from the Championship came after me. Not too strange I suppose.

But just days later, Leicester, just relegated from the Premiership, came in with this offer! Who would give a recently non league manager a job with £24.5m to spend! Think I might save this one to the side, and keep it for a potential career game later. (also recently relegated Norwich also look like offering me the job too!)

Also just had the news that we are getting a new stadium by the end of next season - the imaginatively titled Canvey Island Stadium. Think it took weeks to come up with the name...

I mostly got offered same division jobs while working my way up the leagues, then the bigger clubs started to get more interested when I was in the Championship. And after one season in the Premiership I was pretty much linked to every top job. Although I only got one big offer, which was Liverpool with a £62m wage budget.

FC United of ManchesterSeason 3 (2014/2015) - npower League 2
Final position: 8thTableProgress

We were never threatened to go down, and we couldn't realistically challenge for playoff spot either. Good calm season in the league for us. In the cups it was a different story as we were surprisingly competitive in the League Cup, where we were stopped only by Premiership Burnley in the semi final. This let me earn some good money and we ended the season in the green . Next season will be a tough one, with some players leaving for free as their contract ends, and I didn't feel they're up to the league standard anyway, but most importantly we're losing our star striker Bart Aalbers, who was acting like a teen girl throughout a season. In the beginning he was crying that he want's a new deal, so I try to offer him one, but he demanded over 3.5k a week (my total wage budget is 10k) so I threatened to transfer list him unless he signs a new deal. He says OK, and comes back with demanding 5.5k lol. So I transfer list him and two teams make an offer Charlton with 525k and Burnley with 300k. I accepted the higher and rejected the lower offer, and everything was fine until he accepted the Charlton offer and one week later he was unhappy at me rejecting the Burnley renewed offer of 350k. This caused two other player to be unhappy at my treatment of Aalbers (and me releasing them on free). So we're looking at a team building season next year.

targets from last season:
League: Stay up - Achieved
FA Cup: Get a cup run and make some money - Not really a run, but we did OK
League Cup: Get a nice away match against some strong Premiership side to boost the budget - Achieved, with style
JPT: I don't really care

Targets for next season:
League: Mid table Position (Media: 19th)
FA Cup: Get a cup run and make some money
League Cup: Get a nice away match against some strong Premiership side to boost the budget
JPT: Win a few matches

An amazing first season, that saw us blow away the opposition in many games, and seemingly score at will. A rough winter schedule of 2 games a week took its toll on a team that had a great 11 but no real depth, before a horrific run of injuries saw them blow the league in the last few games. Managing to throw away a 3 goal lead in the first leg of the play-offs set the alarm bells ringing, but in the end we coasted through to the Blue Square Premier via a win over fierce rivals Guiseley!

Oh great. Got through to the Champions league final and my top scorer is suspended! Given injuries and squad registration issues, I may only have two strikers available for the final. That won't go well with my 4-3-3!

Another season of disappointment, I'm not sure if I will ever finish this challenge! I think I need to bring in more quality as back up but we are lacking the finishing in front of goal is awful so a decent goalscorer is top of my wanted list!

Lost the Premier league title on goal difference, thanks to a last minute goal. GUTTED!

... won the Champions league though! Great effort from my team, riddled with injury and suspension we didn't even have a substitute striker, ended up playing a midfielder up front, then reduced to 10 men due to injury. Still beat Man City 2-0.

Tragically missed out on the championship after conceding a last minute goal in our final game, which meant we lost the title on goal difference. Agonising! Our small squad just couldn't cope with the injuries and suspensions towards the end of the season.
Champions league:Winners, beat Man City 2-0 AET / Progress / Goals

Despite losing two of our best strikers to injury and suspension, and having no strikers available to name on the subs bench, we still managed to be the better side, eventually winning out thanks to Eberlein's class in extra time.

Star players;
1- Zlatko Rozman - A real revelation this season as I thought he would become a backup centre-back. Instead player 50 games, scoring 18 goals!
2- Philipp Eberlein - A fantastic runner on the ball, his pace and trickery bagged him 22 goals, with 15 assists and 10 MoM awards.
3- Denis - The 24 goal Brazilian striker unfortunately suffered a broken ankle towards the end of the season, which really impacted our league form.
4- Carlos Gonzalez - Cost me a total of £20m, but looks well worth it, was absolute class at the back.
5- Derek Wright - A bit of a Roy of the Rovers story. Wright was a striker we signed in League 1 and looked to be dropping to reserve team football. Instead, he ended up bagging 26 goals, but was dramatically suspended from the Champions league final. A deserving club icon.
6- Peter Birbeck - A bargain £1.6m signing from Man City, a cup tied Birbeck couldn't help our Champions league run, but showed his class in the league. Will be a massive player for us next season.

Spent about 6hrs on the first week, brutally tough. The wage budget is about the same as I remember (2k/week) but the money some players want is much higher and you can no longer sign players on full time like you could back in 08. Overall, I think I must have brought in over 100 players on trial, very difficult not to get desperate when other clubs start bidding for them and you're waiting for others to come in on trial to work out who is better.

Went over wage budget early on to try and make the team competitive, helped that a number of the starting squad were on £0 so they made good backups for the first season. Good season, although never truly came close to challenging for a playoff spot but did manage to build up a big database of players from all the scouting, recommendations, trials etc.

At the end of the first season, I had a dilemma. The £0'ers all walked out (don't blame them) and those who were getting paid wanted pay rises, some wanted £400/week when the budget was only £2.1k.week which is impossible to do. So, at the end of the first season, I actually got rid of a number of players, including captain and top scorer Wade Small, which didn't go down well with the board. However, with the wages saved from Small, Whittle and Ford (who was also a coach), I was able to bring in 2 new strikers, a new left winger, new left back and new right back for the 13/14 season.

Have filled out my squad with £5/week youth players and so far it's worked out alright, having made a good start to the 13/14 season. There's a big quality drop outside of my best 11 though, so I'm nervous as we get into the 2 games/week phase of the season.

A slightly improved season. Only signed the 1 player just to see if I could have a more consistent season with an already gelled squad and I think it made some difference, although the top 4 seems to be in a league of their own. I think I need to get in a few more key signings to make sure we can continue on our momentum of this season.

In the cups we lost in quarters of League cup, in Euro Cup we made it to the 2nd Knockout round before Juventus beat us overall by only 1 goal. We also lost in FA Cup quarters and in the shock of the season, Newport County in League 1 (promoted back to champ for next season), won the FA Cup.

Already got some improved players coming in for next season and a few of my old high earners that I cant get rid of will be leaving in a month when their contracts expire which should help a lot.

The aim for the new season was to gain promotion to the Premier League and by the end of July I was confident that I'd put together the squad required to do the job, mainly though buying a decent couple of defenders and a creative midfielder. The campaign started well and a run in the Carling Cup was good for confidence after wins against Newcastle and Tottenham.
The turn of the year saw me top of the league and drawn away in the FA Cup to Man Utd, which helped boost the financial difficulties. An agonising extra-time loss in the Carling Cup final was hard to take but was a good achievement, but nothing compared to winning the Championship and looking forward to Premier League football. However, the FC United Stadium won't see top flight football straight away due to a stadium expansion to take it from 6,600 seats to 12,500. The DW Stadium will be home for now.
Another highlight of the season was my son coming through the youth system. Unfortunately, he's a goalkeeper and looks as **** as I was between the sticks!

Season update #2

After last season's defeat in the Blue Square North play-off final away at Northwich it was the management's aim to achieve automatic promotion this season. As if to underline that desire, the club made the marquee signing of Sean Thornton (of Leyton Orient and Doncaster fame) on a free from Aberystwyth. Although now breaking into his thirties it was clear to all the skill he still possessed could have seen him play at a much higher level, so this signing was a major coup for Chester. As the summer progressed some non-contract backup signings began to trickle in, along with two Aussie beauts. Joshua Thomas and the lovely Krunoslav Bakula (nicknamed Chase due to him also being half-Croatian - have to admit I have a bit of a man-crush on him also) were sure to set the league alight.

Needless to say, with such skill within the ranks, Chester dominated the league (as you can see from the Postions screenshot - we only dropped to second due to our cup runs meaning we were a few games behind) and went on to become champions with two games of the season remaining. Happily enough the team became centurions too by breaking the 100 point barrier with the final game of the season. The FA Cup saw Chester make it to the second round proper, before crashing out to a vastly superior Mansfield team. More silverware was to be won however, unfortunately it was only silver though as a close game saw Chester run out a close second in the FA Trophy against Gillingham. The game at Wembley more than made up for missing the chance to properly celebrate the league title win with the fans, which we unable to do at the Deva Stadium due to our last couple of league fixtures being away games. Despite the defeat, the accounting department still partied like we'd done the double - hopefully not splashing out too much of the £300k (approx.) the club reeled in from the Wembley crowd.

Ian Bennet had broadcast his intent to retire at the end of the season and we made sure he retired on a high, even if his rapidly declining stats meant he only played for the first half of the season. The clubs other old man, Marcus Hall, was also evidently on the decline - though not so much in skill as in fitness. Multiple injuries over the season saw him barely playing half a season himself and forced the club to ram raid the loan market on a few occasions. There are strong rumours that Marcus Hall will not play another league game for the club, instead being utilised as a tutor for some of the youngsters if a new club cannot be found for him. Hall is unlikely to be the only exit from the promotion winning team as the success of the club this season is without doubt going to attract some of the bigger clubs to the team's key players. The manager will surely have his work cut out to keep the stars of this season and replacing those who he fails to keep hold of. Overall though, a more than satisfactory season!

Targets:

Try to keep hold of key players (Thornton, Thomas, Bakula)
Play-off place in the BSP
Final of the FAT

History:

Code:

Season

Division

Position

Cups/Achievements

2012-13

Blue Square North

3rd

Play-off finals

2013-14

Blue Square North

1st

FAT runners up, Manager of the Season

N.B. Sorry can't seem to get rid of that big gap in the History table!

I did eventually sell Faulds, for a record fee, and this left me worryingly exposed at the back. I was worried, because I couldn't find any adequate replacements and I was braced for a long, hard season. However, early season form from the very average-looking Callum Connelly helped, and the team put together a run that saw me top after 10 games. I didn't really believe we could keep it up, though, and when we hit the end of January still top of the league, and some eight points clear, I couldnt quite believe it. I got in a few reinforcements to try to cement the position, nonetheless, because I didnt feel the team was quite up to promotion yet, especially in defence. But I also had to let my 'keeper go. He wasn't anything special, and £300k was just too tempting even though I didn't feel I had an adequate replacement. I looked to try and bring someone in, but couldn't find anyone even close to his ability, so I made do with the dross I had languishing as backup to Cowell before he was sold - namely Junior Tommy, who, despite an awesome name, had never had an AvR of over 6.91.

However, though the goalkeeping situation was an issue, I did strengthen the defence by bringing in Biagui Kemenani which meant that Callum Connelly's injury didn't cause any problems, and it meant that Tommy wasn't too exposed. Frankly, with the defence on the form they were in this season, I probably didn't need a goalkeeper!

To my astonishment, we just kept on winning, and tied up promotion with four games to spare. So finally I'm out of League One and into the Championship. We missed out on the 100 points which was a possibility, and didn't score as freely as we might have done but the defence was inexplicably sturdy and that's what did it for us this year.

Cup Runs weren't exactly the priority this year and the defeat to Wrexham was annoying because we could have had a big 4th round tie with Spurs, but it would have been at home so actually not that great.

Key PlayersCallum Connelly- talk about proving me wrong! Faulds wasn't missed at all, and this guy really stepped up.Dominic Winter- another 20 goals, which in a 3-man attack is plenty for a single striker.Ivan Vega- improved my left-back position massively and I think he's good enough for the first season in the Championship.Petru Burlacu*- also made a good contribution in terms of goals.Biagui Kemenani- signed on loan from Liverpool, kept our title tilt on track with some good performances - enough to persuade me to sign him on a Bosman at the end of the season.Gokhan Karatoprak- surprised me as I was checking through the squad at the end of the season as he had the best minutes to goals ratio of anyone. He's done really well and I'm sad to see him leave.
(*= fans' player of the year)

I was only 2nd in the manager of the year stakes, which is odd given that I finished top and Portsmouth have a much higher reputation than me. I swear this game has an issue with reputation.

Callum Connelly was named in the League 1 select XI.

Key Records Broken
Highest Transfer Fee Received: £675k for Mike Faulds to Huddersfield.
Highest Total Transfer Income: £1m although the transfers section puts it at £1.1m.
Highest League Position: 1st in League One

Valete (Or, key departures and their career stats)

MIKE FAULDS
Wouldn't sign a new contract so whilst I would like to have kept him, I had to cash in, and £675k was pretty good for someone valued at £100k and who would have left for nothing the following summer.
APPS: 150, GLS: 20, ASSTS: 11, MoM: 15, AvR: 7.28

LEWIS CASEY
Just wanted an upgrade, really; but he did do a good job for me, filling what had been a problem position.
APPS: 75, GLS: 0, ASSTS: 3, MoM: 4, AvR: 7.06

CRAIG DAVIDSON
Perhaps the best name I've had so far (still waiting for Marshall Matherson!). He was decent, but nothing special, in a squad full of top class strikers.
APPS: 70, GLS: 25, ASSTS: 20, MoM: 6, AvR: 7.19

BEN LUND
Just had quite a few people in the squad better than him in the same positions.
APPS: 111, GLS: 5, ASSTS: 1, MoM: 4, AvR: 6.99

GOKHAN KARATOPRAK
Suddenly agreed a deal to move away from Harrow immediately after promotion was confirmed. But though he was decent as a back-up player in League One, I dont think he would have been up to Championship standard to be honest.
APPS: 185, GLS: 74, ASSTS: 64, MoM: 24, AvR: 7.26

Next season, survival is everything, but also the finances need sorting out. With a takeover only recent history, there's little chance of another one yet, and though investment is possible, I think I'll have to cost-cut a little bit. A smaller squad, and thinking small for a few years of stability in the Championship is, I think, what we need. We'll be sharing Vicarage Road with Watford until mid-January while our stadium is converted to all-seater, so that will be interesting. It also cost me a lot, plunging me further into the red. But also, my scouting range has been improved, which will make things easier on the playing side.

In the middle of an amazing FA Cup run. Through to the 4th round after getting through three qualifying rounds (last was home against BSP team, Hayes and Yeading), then beating Crewe (BSP) at home in the first round, winning away to L2 Cheltenham in Rd 2 and now outlasting Tranmere (L2) in the third round at home. Obviously I've been lucky with my draw so far not having to play above L2 but with this run, I'm almost back to even financially, if I can get a big name away game in the 4th round, I think I'll be back in the black.

Edit: Got Sunderland away, they're currently 12th in the PRM, that should be enough.

Haven't won in 8 matches, got beaten 3-0 by Sunderland and it could've been 7 or 8 nil, lost top spot in the BSS because of this bad run, playing 13 matches in the past 37 days with both main strikers out and one main central midfielder out.

On a positive note, the game was on TV and with the TV and gate combined, brought in £470k of revenue to the club, so about £400k after tax. That should be enough to enable me to bring in a little more depth, improve the training facilities and maybe finally get the board to agree to things.

Had my best FA Cup draw to date (4th season in)---even though it didn't go far...after dispatching Dorchester in the 4th QR, got L1 Gillingham at their place...my share of gate receipts of £85K was the highest I've had so far (in fact, might've been more than all of my cup gate receipts in any given year!). Lost to them 2-0 in a spirited match where I held them in check for the first 75 minutes or so....but they eventually broke me down. Best team I've drawn so far, best gate receipts...keeping me relatively out of trouble (still in the red...but not terribly bad shape).

Oh...and I just moved ahead of BSS Farnborough on the rep screen...next up newly promoted to BSP Lewes...then another 11 BSN/BSS teams, a sub BSN/BSS team, another 6 BSN/BSS teams, before I start hitting BSP teams again. Progress???

Summary: ProgressCurrent squad Mason Bush stayed for another season although he was still out of contract, and the squad was strengthened slightly with some attacking new blood as a result of a slow-ish start. I don't feel we ever got into a good run; the fixture list was not kind and a couple of wins would be followed by an away game against a top 5 team. However we always stayed a few points outside the play-off places, and beat 4th and 5th within a week of each other and ended with (finally) a run of games against bottom-half sides. In the play-offs we beat Kettering 3-2(agg) and then Mansfield 2-1 to win promotion to League 2. It doesn't feel deserved. Our leading scorer for most of the season was a centre-back Rhys Oates.

Transfers: Transfers were a bit more helpful this time around. Domonic Samuel left on a free, which the board weren't happy about, but his departure freed up wages for a few new signings, including Danny Maier who emerged as our new top-scorer.

Future prospects: Mason Bush signed a new contract. A couple of first-teamers have left; Nicolaj Kohlert (CM) can easily be replaced, but Liam Wakefield (LB with 235 league appearances for the club) will be a big loss. Still in the black, thanks to the play-off final. but our wage budget is low. We're going to struggle.

The preseason was spent getting rid of most of the first season players and bringing in new, better players who wanted less money. Despite this, we still had a wage problem at T&M and after the initial best 14 players, the remainder of the squad was filled with youth players brought in under new, manager friendly, child labour laws.

A good start to preseason carried into the opening part of the BSS season, with T&M remaining unbeaten through the opening 12 games and winning our way into the main draw of the FA Cup. Despite one loss, we maintained our great record dropping only our opening FA Trophy round (which I didn't care about due to FA Cup run), amazingly winning our way through to the 4th Round of the cup and hitting the new year leading and with games in hand.

January, however, was hell. 10 matches in the month (13 in 37 days) which included a 7 match run without a win in the BSS, being knocked out of the FA Cup by Sunderland (no shame there). We then steadied in Feb and early March with a 6 match unbeaten run to steady ourselves in second place. Chelmsford, however, won 10 of 11 games in this period to secure the championship and automatic promotion. During this run, I lost both main strikers to injury, one main central midfielder and fullback, really testing the depth of the squad, however, the board now allowed me to spend more on players, so I brought in a third striker and back up winger, as well as 4 more kids.

The FA Cup run also gave me enough money that the board agreed to improve the training facilities at the end of this season, something I'm sure everyone is looking forward to, should help develop the multitude of youngsters we have at the club.

With automatic promotion gone, we dropped our heads, failing to win in our next 6, dropping to third and in some danger of missing the playoffs. Then came my great move. Going on holiday for three days, I let my assistant take the next game and he squeezed out a win, then, with me back in the chair, won the final two games of the season to finish 3rd and head into the playoffs in good form and with great morale.

First up was Dartford and going away first up, we sat tight early whilst they picked up three early yellows, then struck just before half time. They levelled instantly but we had the momentum still and an early second half goal rocked them, before Ansah slammed through a hatrick as we won 5-2 on the road. From there the home leg was a comfortable 2-1 victory, allowing me to take off some key players during the game to make sure they didn't pick up an injury before the playoff final.

The final was on the road at Hampton & Richmond and what a tight affair it was. Neither team was able to create any great chances all game, but in the 88th minute, my left back, Duffy, came off injured. I brought on my only bench defender, a centre back and moved the original centre back to left back where he was just as comfortable but right on full time, he too had to come off injured leaving me with only three defenders for extra time. Luckily, I have a 3-5-2 formation as a back up formation so I brought on a young midfielder and went three at the back and tried to hold on. Hold on we did until the 110th minute when their left back got caught in possession by Patterson, who passed into into the gambling Ansah who only had the keeper to beat and did so, 1-0 Tooting & Mitcham. One or two small scares later, we were up!

With the season drawing to a close, it looked clear that we would be qualifying for a tough playoff landscape. On the final day of the season we beat Newport County in the first of what would be three straight games against the Welsh outfit, eventually triumphing on penalties after drawing 2-2 on aggregate. At Wembley, we played sixth placed Middlesbrough for a place in the Championship and secured a stunning third straight promotion with a 3-1 victory.

The unprecedented promotion was also a personal success, as I was voted League 1 Manager of the Year for the unexpected promotion, adding to my awards from the other leagues, hopefully I can complete a full set .

We're in no hurry to graduate from the Championship, so I'm hoping to ensure the stability of our rapidly recovering financial state and make ready for an attack on the top tier.

-

FA Cup: Relegated Premiership side Stoke gave us a 3-0 hiding in the Third Round, our best run since 2015.League Cup: Championship Champions Bolton smashed us 4-1 in the Second Round.Johnstone's Paint Trophy: An embarrassing defeat 2-1 to Gillingham in the First Round South.

Managers Player of the Season

David McGoldrick: Jovicic nearly secured a second consecutive MPOTS award but David's contribution was too big to ignore as the veteran striker scored 27 goals in 45 appearances.

FC United of ManchesterSeason 4 (2015/2016) - Coca-Cola League 2
Final position: 1stTableProgress

After selling Bart Aalbers last season I felt this one is going to be a struggle. I have managed to secure some players that did perform well above expectations and more importantly the players I already had were much more solid this year. We have started reasonably hovering around the playoff spot for the whole fist half of the season and around middle point we made our move for a top spot. When we got there we never let it slip and we secured the title with 2 games to spare. This was my best season so far, where I felt our performaces deserved the results not the other way round. Our cup runs were mixed, we didn't get a lot of attention in both LC and FA Cup, but we played marvellously in the JPT, winning it eventually against Gillingham. I was very happy of this performance as it looks like the game did not want us to win, when we got 4 injuries in the match preceding the final, and two players were out with international fixtures. To win this with such a weakened side was a major achievement for us.

Star player: Steen Schwartz, our brain in the midfield. Maybe he didn't have the highest ratings, but our play looked definately different with him on the field. Will be hard next season without this guy but I couldn't refuse the 1M offer.

targets from last season:
League: Mid table Position - Surpassed
FA Cup: Get a cup run and make some money - Failed, lost with Sheff Wed but the income wasn't too big
League Cup: Get a nice away match against some strong Premiership side to boost the budget - Failed, got two home ties, where Aston Villa proved too strong for us
JPT: Win a few matches - Surpassed

Targets for next season:
League: Avoid relegation (Media 24th)
FA Cup: Get a cup run and make some money
League Cup: Get a nice away match against some strong Premiership side to boost the budget
JPT: If we're safe in the league maybe defend the trophy

Season Summary: An improvement on last season again, but still no promotion. With ever diminishing wage funds, I was not hopeful of any improvement, but the youngster's brought into the side stepped up to the plate, and started like a house on fire. At the early stages of the season, we were at one point top of the table, and I started dreaming of BSP football. However, as soon as I had a string of injuries to my main striker's, the impetous was lost, and we began to slide down the table. Order was restored eventually, but it was too late to mount a serious challenge for a playoff spot, and ended up 5 points shy. Still, 7th spot in the BSS is our highest finish, and we will be striving to improve again next term. Cups were carp as usual - you never know one day I might reach the first round proper of the FA Cup.

Well done GOM, good to see you progressing now. Mind you i thought my finances were bad and they are only just in the red, although i've yet to spend money on a player. My stadium is also being converted to all seater, unfortunately i'm not moving and it will still only be 5605 when its done.

A season of runs, after the first 10 games of the season the home team had won 100% of our games, shortly following that we went on a run of 5 draws in 5 league games, and then the xmas period hit us again, losing 7 consecutively and 8 out of 10 from boxing day to the end of january in all competitions. This left us in 18th, and had me worried so I brought in quite a few fresh faces, which seemed to work wonders, well that and the fixture list easing up, allowed us to win 12 and draw 2 of our last 16 games.

If it was a decent season in the league, then it was an amazing year in the FA Cup, managing to avoid any league teams until the 3rd round, we hit the jackpot with Arsenal away, We left the emirates with a 5-1 thrashing and 1 million pounds richer! I immediately went to the board to upgrade the training facilities and the junior coaching. Then got a nice surprise at the end of the season when the board announced another upgrade to training, though I wonder if this is a bug. I then requested an update to the youth facilities too, so now were broke again!

Lewes Chairman Martin Elliot delighted Rooks fans by announcing plans for a new 16,616 capacity all seater stadium in early 2020, the influence of eight year veteran manager Liam Crowter helped in convincing the board.

After a major restructuring during the off season we went into our first Championship season as something of an unknown quantity, and some good early results had us in the playoff picture and gave us a chance of achieving another consecutive promotion. We quickly ebbed away however as a barren December run left us well adrift of the playoff places.

Some impressive end of season results gave us confidence for next season, including a 5-0 drubbing of Burnley which gave us an 11th place finish, way above what I and everybody else anticipated, but at times this season was one of the most unenjoyable experiences I have ever had in Football Manager.

You might question what was so unenjoyable, well, it was the complete incapability of my team to hold on to wins. At one point we had three leads over Reading in a game which finished 4-4 at the Dripping Pan, it was ludicrous and quite frankly embarrassing.

As you can see above, Lewes will be moving into the brand new 16,616 capacity Lewes Stadium. The project is funded by a bank loan, a stadium grant and stadium name sponsorship (I'll be looking for a suitable company to give the stadium name to for report purposes). We're scheduled to move in before the 2021-2022 season, so hopefully the first season at the new ground will be a season of top flight football . I'm reliably informed that the two goal side stands will be called the Jernade Meade stand (after Lewes' retired iconic winger and inspirational leader) and the Liam Crowter stand (after Lewes' greatest ever manager of course ).

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FA Cup: We made further progress in the national cup but West Ham were just way too good as we lost 4-1 in the Fifth Round.League Cup: An 8-1 win against Brentford in the First Round was soon forgotten as we lost 4-1 to Wrexham in the Second Round.

Managers Player of the Season

Ljubomir Jovicic: The heart of our defence and the our joint top scorer this season as he took the captains armband, an all round top man with 20 goals in 38 games and a 7.41 average.

We made a significant profit of £1.3 million on a German that we signed for a free transfer, Dariusz Wojciechowski. The board accepted the offer on my behalf but I honestly couldn't see how I would have rejected that. I would have liked to have kept the player but the money was too good to turn down.

Well that has to have been my most enjoyable season for ages. We spent a small fortune on new players and picked up some quality free transfers and some of the young players I had picked up randomly in the past, have started to come into their own this season. The season would have been close to perfect had it not been that Man City are still a league ahead of us in terms of quality, and I'm not going to forgive Birmingham for knocking us out of the League cup in round 3 on penalties.

The league we started absolutely awful and I had to wonder how I had managed to destroy my squad but then we must have gelled or a winning spirit kicked in, as we ended up higher than my wildest expectations. We ended up in 2nd in the league which qualifies us for the group stages of the Champions League, which is at least the competition we need to get some experience in.

The FA Cup was our best yet with a great run to the final. As a Liverpool fan, I was always going to have mixed feeling about this tie but I'm delighted with the overall result. Was also during the season offered the Liverpool job, which was flattering.

We had a tought set of clubs in the Euro Cup. Red Star Belrade were beaten to get to the groups. In the group we had Brondby, Dynamo Kiev and Getafe. And then on the run to the final we also knocked out in order Sporting Lisbon, Bursapor, PSV and Inter Milan. Was delighted just to make the final and to beat Seville in that manner was fantastic. As a result we get to play the Super Cup as well next season.

The season was made even more challenging by an on and off again takeover saga that saw us linked with 2 tycoons before a bog standard businessman took over but he has provided some investment and an instant upgrade to training facilities

Aims
Finish higher in the league
Get past group stage in Champions League
Strengthen squad but not bring in too many players

This was a very good season as it was almost the same team from last year and clicked into top gear immediately. By the end of jan i was 10 points clear and it was only a bad run in mar and apr that meant promotion wasn't achieved earlier than with 3 games left. Swansea's poor form meant i clinched the title in the last game of the season. The league cup started with a shock as the team lost at home 0-2 to L1 Bradford. In the FA cup i took 2 goes to get past Morecambe in the first rd before breezing past non-league Braintree. In the 3rd Rd i faced CH Notts Forest and drew 1-1 away before winning 2-1 at home in the last minute. In the 4th Rd i drew 1-1 away to Prem Sunderland and won 2-0 in the replay. Tiredness and injury caught up with the team and they lost 1-4 at home to CH Cardiff. In the JPT I gained revenge over Wrexham by winning the Northern final 4-3 on agg. The final was a formality.
Finances are still very poor and the board have now spent 350K on converting the stadium to all seater. My training facilities are still fairly basic which is holding the club back.

Couple more players left,Thomas (129 apps, 6 goals) had a 10 month virus and decreased so much i let him go. Muller (65 apps) left on a bosman after i couldn't agree a new contract. Berggren (99 apps, 20 goals) also left although he had never played to the level his attributes would suggest. The players in were again mostly youth players, Horstkotter was a first teamer to replace Muller but he was disappointing. Pavkovic is the next 'Nemanja Vidic' but took some time to bed in. Flemming was outstanding especially at the start of the season. Klinger also did well as did Bule and Brandt. Bule has been at the club since the BSP and is still rated the best player.

Edit: Sold my LB for 2 million and went straight to the board to request a training facilities upgrade only for them to tell me they are good enough for a club at this level
Luckily i convinced them they were wrong and they are spending 1.1 million to upgrade them.

I had written this report and then my PC blue-screened and I had to write it again so it's probably not going to be as good this time I'm afraid!

I struggled to find players to improve the squad over the summer so after a surprise promotion, it was most definitely survival only that I was after this year. Being at a new home ground, albeit a temporary one, was probably a bit of an issue for the club, although when we drew Man City at home in the League Cup 2nd round, I was glad of it.

By the time we moved out of Vicarage Road and back into the newly all-seater Harrow Stadium, our home record read something like W8 D2 L3 (Cant remember exactly because of the sodding PC crash after not saving the report for two days!). Moving back to Harrow Stadium didn't affect our form though, and we ended the season second only to Ipswich on home form with 15 wins, 3 draws and only 5 defeats. The away record had us only narrowly avoiding relegation!

There was a genuine chance of a playoff place for a while, but I wasnt really disappointed not to get it - we're some way from being Premiership material. For a first season in the Championship, this was a huge achievement.

Cup Runs this year were impressive not in their length but in their fight - taking Man City all the way was a serious highlight, and the Wolves game was very close too. Fixture bug seems to have disappeared now so I can now do these properly.

Key PlayersGrant Preston- broke into the team late, but was a revelation, scoring for fun and the best AvR by miles.Joel Mikiela- I really wanted this guy and got him in January. Not cheap but he's a classy 'keeper.Petru Burlacu*- last season's player of the year became top goalscorer this year as well as retaining his status as Player of the Year.Volkan Kaya- has become another stalwart and his improvement has covered up for the loss of Avgousti.Biagui Kemenani- the loanee from last season was released by Liverpool and signed for us permanently. He's not bad at all...Ludovic Louis- this season's loanee from Ardennes did quite well, and 11 assists is an indication that he was better than his AvR suggests.Francisco Luis Melendez- also chipped in with loads of assists and again, his AvR is lower than his importance to the team.Gary Richardson- 12 key tackles, and is starting to become a key defender in the side.

JUNIOR TOMMY
The 'keeper with a great name was just surplus to requirements and has been released at the end of his contract.
APPS: 154, CONC: 176, CLN: 54, MoM: 2, AvR: 6.86

VOLKAN KAYA
His wage demands just skyrocketed and I was unable to keep hold of him. He's had a great run for us.
APPS: 334, GLS: 2, ASSTS: 45, MoM: 8, AvR: 7.02

JOEL MIKIELA
Only spent six months at the club but Fulham's bid of £3m prompted the board to accept the bid on my behalf. Not complaining. He's good but that cash is ridiculously good! £2.4m of it is spread over the next two years but that is probably a good thing.
APPS: 27, CONC: 33, CLN: 13, MoM: 3, AvR: 7.03

Next season, we need to consolidate. I would like to improve on this season, but I think we're two years away from promotion. I don't feel this team is quite ready for the Premiership yet which is why I'm happy not to get into the playoffs. Ideally I'd like to get to the playoff final next season but lose narrowly!

Targets for 2026/27
Survival SUCCESS - and though I was close to a playoff place, it would have been too soon!
Get into the black financially - might be a lost cause though SUCCESS - the massive jump in prize money helped! But a lot of expensive contract renewals for next season will mean that we might struggle a little financially, and might be forced to sell someone.
Aim for a proper stadium expansion SUCCESS - after being told there was no money, the board did put in an expansion plan at the end of the season and the extra 1257 seats, taking my capacity over 7,000, should provide, by my reckoning and assuming we continue to fill the stadium (we got far more than 7,000 at Vicarage Road), 750k of extra revenue per year. It cost £1.5m so it should pay for itself within two years, which is great.

Targets for 2027/28
Get more points than last season.
Sign at least two players rated at least as good as Mikiela by my AssMan.
STOP PRESS: He's now left so no comparison. I'll just say better than Kemenani!
Get to the fourth round of at least one of the cups.

Inspired by High Flying Dwarf, and in recognition of the development of Harrow Stadium, the stands have been renamed. Current players were not considered, however, and the stand names will be up for review every few years and/or when we move to a new stadium. The stadium has been renamed the WebArrow Stadium after the company providing just over £30k a year until 2030.

The dressing room stand is now the Gokhan Karatoprak stand.
The opposite stand is now the Giasoumis Avgousti stand.
The goal to the right of the dugout from the subs' bench perspective is to be the Abian Serrano end.
The goal to the left of the dugout from the subs' bench perspective will be named the Josh Williams bank. It was a toss-up between him and Mike Faulds, but Faulds was sold just as he reached his peak so I felt the loyal Williams deserved it more.

In other news, the two major games that were lost due to my PC crash (along with my report) were the Cup Final and the Champions' League Final. Spurs will curse my computer forever, as they beat United 1-0 in the first run, but lost 1-0 in the second, so Man Utd lifted the cup. Chelsea's status as champions had been all but confirmed before the crash with a 6 point lead going into the final two games so their position wasn't in jeopardy, but Arsenal's first ever Champions' League win was chalked off. However, they must still have felt confident taking on Sporting in the Bernabeu. However, second time around, Gonner hearts were broken in a Champions' League Final again, going down 2-1 despite having 58% of the possession. Gut-wrenching, surely. What the crash could not chalk off, because it happened at the end of LAST season, was England's triumph. 60 years on from the first World Cup win, Sam Comyn-Platt joined Geoff Hurst in the legend category with an extra-time winner as England beat hosts Mexico 1-0 after extra time in Mexico City. England had won the World Cup!

A very good season and alot of screen shots coming up! Finished second in the league after untouchable Man Utd's third league win in a row. Won the FA Cup as well as the Champions League.

After this amazing season we are currently ranked as rank 1 in Europe. Board decided to enlarge stadium by 11262 seats as a little reward (that I like to think). Had my first job offer I really would have liked, as the English Football Association offered the job as National Coach. It hurt to decline!

Finances are killing me atm, so looking to sellout a lot of players in the next season. The many talented youths managed to win Reserves League, with an impressive 47 pts and 81/14 record. Even the U18 won their league with 48 pts and a 42/20 goal score.

Cups: After several seasons with depressing results in the English Competitions, we managed to get to the Q/F of the LC. Loosing to CH Stoke away on penalties was a tough blow, but the FA and ECC made up for that.

GK:
- Alan Murtic: With a 4 month injury to Salisbur, Murtic had a really good run 37 games, 29 conceded and 19 cln sheets.

DEF:
- Lars Andersen: Impressive as other seasons.
- Cristiano: Same as Andersen, though slightly concerned about his stats, as he really hasn't increased in almost 2 seasons.
- Carl "the one and only" Flynn: 34 year old Flynn had a good run in his 43 games. Although, he seems too lazy to run to the offensive set pieces and likes to hang around in the back.

MID:
- Chris Hayter: Had a great season with 56 games and 19 assists. Lost his national spot this year.
- Yassine Masson: Great season from this young French player. 21 years old and first team national for 2 seasons.
- Busão: Good season, pleyed him less this seasons and gave Costa a good run instead.
- Marcos Costa: 37 games 12 goals and 10 assists. Even at age 32 Costa was an amazing player this season.
- Pirulito: Had his best season so far, capped with 8 goals and 15 assists.
- Carlos: Had yet another good season.

ATT:
- Wayne "Golden Boot" Hall: 59 games 40 goals. Is "finally" being played in attack in the national team. with 12 caps 10 goals this season.
- Giuseppe Cutolo: Followed last seasons good form and contributed with 20 goals in 39 games.

Future Hopes of Hitchin - And will change to 3-4-3 next season after signing Englands first team striker choice Mark Noble (27.5mill from Sunderland) On Midfield I have high hopes for Rony Rivera, who has been with us for 4 years.

After a slow start, my 2nd season in the Blue Square Premier League has started to settle in. Early in the season, scoring was a problem---only a solid defense kept me from the bottom of the table. However, by the quarter-point of the season, key players up front finally started to produce. Ethan Mannion (whom I managed to keep on another season at the same wages) leads the team with 8 goals. Unfortunately, Youngster Danny Allen, second in scoring with 5 goals, and just coming off injury was just ruled out injured 3-4 months with a torn hamstring (came on as a sub in the 57th minute, scored the equalizer in the 83rd minute, and went of injured in the 89th minute --- very bad luck for the 18yo ST/DC)

As mentioned, it isn't the offense, but the defense that has stood out this year. Due to wage restrictions, I reluctantly released Jordan Tunnecliffe (in favor of keeping striker Mannion). I felt that my previous years' acquisition, Kossi Kodouto, alongside a youngter I picked up on cheap £5/wk wages Eddie Ibbetson should hold the line well enough. I also released GK Ollie Chenoweth in favor of the slightly more affordable Mateusz Taudul (picked up at the tail end of the previous season). Together, this defensive unit has only conceded 24 goals in 32 league matches (4th in the BSP) and managed 9 cleansheets (behind only Hereford and Welling, both with 10). They also managed to hold L1 Gillingham in check for most of our away match in the 1st round of the FAC, finally conceding two late goals, but putting up a good fight in the loss.

Ending the first half of the season with 7 matches undefeated, our position of 10th on the table is very promising. We've still got the FAT to play for, with a relatively easy match against Hayes and yeading to look forward to for the second round. A top-half finish is what I was aiming for at the beginning of the season, and, on 33 points in the first 23 I'm placed well enough to accomplish that.

Financially, we're still £150K in the red --- actually a higher balance than we started the season with, as the board injected 200K right at the top of the season....and nearly 90K in gate receipts from our 1st round FAC helped reduce our deficits a bit as well. Hopefully a strong second half push will have the board putting some more cash in the coffers at the end of season (one can hope, no??? )

Reputation wise, I'm still bottom of the BSP (even newly promoted teams are ahead of me, though one of them, Lewes, is now immediately above me on the list, as my Hastings side has overtaken such teams as Farnborough, Staines, and bromley (all BSS or lower) so far this season.

(Oops...update --- Solihull Moors has slipped between Lewes and hastings Utd --- I'm guessing that Lewes, sitting 9th in the BSP, climbed above BSN Solihull Moors....leaving another BS Regional team for me to overtake before I see the bottom of the BSP teams).

Tooting & Mitcham early season 3 update. It has taken me longer to get from the end of May to end of July than it does to play a whole season. Two things are obvious;

1. I'm addicted to youth contracts. Currently have over 20 players each on £5/week, over half my total squad of players. I'm pretty sure I'm never going to play more than 4-5 of them but I still hoard them and won't make them leave, even after their contract is over.

2. I hate the BSP's 40-70 messages per match day. I've tried filtering to 'personal' but that still doesn't really help is I see the Inbox sign with 200+ messages and it annoys me too much to let it go. Can I realistically unsubscribe from the league I'm in or will that mean I missing everything?

A brilliant season for the club with us winning the league with a game to go and also winning the FA Trophy aginst Barrow 3-1.

We only signed 5 players during the transfer windows this help to improve the depth of the squad, going the other way 10 players left who wouldn't renew contract or were surplus to requirements.

Best player once again was our top class forward Jack Adams.

Finances were kept in check with only making a loss of about £80,000 which isn't bad as we got to FA Cup 3rd round, where we took Southampton to a replay back at St Marys and also getting to the FA trophy final.

This also helped the board agree to a new stadium costing £8.5 million to build which will be ready for the 2016/17 season, but with the sponsorship deal of the old ground for 1 year and new stadium for 4 years, also a government grant meant that the board only needed to take out a bank loan of £4 million to finance the build, which in the long run makes it more viable as repayments our around £28,000 per month which gate reciepts will cover. So will need a good JPT, Carling or FA Cup run and more tv revenue this will bring to cover rest of expenditure next season.

The aim for the new season was to survive at all costs and try and bag a few free transfers that could do the job. I was chuffed when I signed Hamsik....unfortunately he was totally gash! Luckily, a few of the old squad stepped up to the plate and the season started with a 3-0 win against Chelsea. However, I was unable to find any consistency and was in the bottom 3 come December.
The turn of the year saw the club move back into our own stadium and acheive a few decent results and safety was almost certain by the end of May. Job done!

Community Shield: North Ferriby 3-0 Man CityEuro Super Cup : North Ferriby 1-0 BarcelonaLeague Cup 3rd Round: Wrexham 2-1 North Ferriby - in fairness I did try a few youngsters in this game so my own faultChampions League QF Leg 1: North Ferriby 3-4 Bayern MunichChampions League QF Leg 2: Bayern Munich 4-1 North Ferriby - we will have to try again next season to compete this part of the challenge but a great showing in our first attempt in the Champions LeagueFA Cup Final: North Feriiby 2-2 Man U - we win and defend our title 3-2 on penaltiesLast Game of the Season: Man City 2-1 North Ferriby - defeat meant that City won the title, and we had to be content with runners up again. It was however a much closer race than last season, with any of 3 sides possibly being the winners on last day of the season.

AimsGo one better in league
Hope for another large transfer budget to pick up a couple more expensive signings